Featured in PBSP Annual Report

A few weeks ago, the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) released its annual report for 2008. PBSP is a non-profit consortium of corporations leading the advocacy on the practice of corporate social responsibility. 

My blog entry (in compressed form) about our company's tree planting held last year in Tabunan, Cebu has been featured in their report. Our company's copy of the annual report, in glossy magazine format was given to me by our Environmental Health and Safety chair.

Here's the cover...

[caption id="attachment_443" align="aligncenter" width="299" caption="PBSP Annual Report 2008"][/caption]

 My compressed article is featured in page 56.

[caption id="attachment_444" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="My article about our company's tree planting held last year in Tabunan."][/caption]

A soft copy of the report could also be found in their website.

Thank you PBSP for including my article in your annual report!

Back to the River II

There is a certain sense of fulfilment when one finishes a trekking trail.
And so last Palm Sunday, fellow photo enthusiast Al Michael and I went back to the river of Inghoy, Alegria.

Following a different trail, we walked along a path were trees seemed to have stood side by side.



Carved along the hillside, it gave us an upper view of the river we once trod.



We crossed lots showing man's inclination to destroy.



Nature also showed its own way of checks and balances - predation.



In about an hour or so, we reached our first stop. Children and some adults came to the vicinity earlier. When we arrived, we were met with voices happily cheering and laughing .



The waters blue-green and pristine may have been more than refreshing. One cringing boy stayed out in the sun not to dry but to stop his chills.



The sunlight served its purpose for after a while the boy relaxed as he joined the banters of those coaxing others to jump into the water.



While one braved the chills, another boy seemed to have had enough as he took a pensive look.



He must have noticed someone was firing shots at him as he looked and stared directly into the camera.



We moved on to the upper area of the river. There were two more mini-falls that awaited us. We skipped the second one because there is no access that would let us remain dry.

The third waterfall is situated under the shades of several balite trees (ficus variety). We tackled a 10-12 foot slope, climbing down with the aid of vines and exposed tree roots.



The wind has strewn leaves in the sides of the pool that this waterfall has formed. One large leaf caught our attention.



After an hour or two, we decided to head back. We passed a majestic tree with one woman doing laundry.



A very inviting pool was also just along the way.



Reaching the waterfalls of Inghoy River have added this river to our list of conquered ones within Cebu.

Nighttime Riddles

The heat was scorching when I went home for the Lenten season. Our respite was going to my cousin’s house that is beside a small stream. The trees are tall in the area and afforded us their shadows. The breeze was cool and ripe of the rice’s fragrance in the neighboring rice fields.

While I was roaming around, I saw several plants and remembered the most popular riddles. Philippine riddles are a form of poetry because they rhyme. It is said that they were already part of the early Filipinos’ culture even before the Spaniards’ colonization. Here are some of them…

Dahong nagkabunga
Bungang nagkadahon.
(Foliage bearing fruit
Fruit bearing foliage)

The answer of course is the pineapple. Claudia Hyles (author of “And the Answer Is a Pineapple: The King of Fruit in Folklore, Fabric and Food”) has found out there at least 46 riddles in the Philippines about pineapples.

Isang prinsesa
Nakaupo sa tasa.
(A princess sitting on a cup.)

Heto na si Ingkong
Nakaupo sa lusong.
(Here comes an old man
Sitting on a mortar.)

These are two variations of the cashew riddles. The princess and the old man refer to the exposed seed and the cup and the mortar refers to the enlarged ovary or fruit.

Baboy sa pulo,
Balahibo ay pako.
(A pig in the island
With nails for hair strands.)

The answer is the jackfruit, my most favorite fruit (when ripe).

Ang anak ay nakaupo na,
Ang ina ay gumagapang pa.
(The child is already sitting
While its mother is still crawling.)

Another favorite vegetable... I like it cooked with coconut milk with shrimps and some pork slices. The answer is squash.



When we were children, my parents, siblings and cousins who lived with us used to challenge each other with riddles during nighttime. This is usually an offshoot of school assignments that require at least 3-5 Filipino riddles the following day. At times, this nocturnal fun has met much remonstrance from my paternal grandmother (Mamang Vita) whenever she paid us a visit. Casting riddles in the night was a taboo.

Mamang Vita used to tell of olden days when tamawos (Hiligaynon for engkanto or elementals) used to besieged farmers who lived in the mountains. It was believed that the tamawos are constantly disturbed by man’s meandering in their territories so they retaliate. One form of retaliation is by striking fear and surprise to those men at night. Tamawos would join in conversations, peek through open doors and windows and sometimes chase the farmers when they go out at night. Riddles were avoided because according to Mamang Vita, there were many instances that when the riddles were too difficult to solve and no one was able to answer, someone from the window or under the bamboo floors would offer an answer. We believed her story (I still believe them along with many others) but we were so engaged that we would continue throwing riddles. Part of the reason why we continued with the riddles was that we all liked Mamang’s stories. Yes, our Mamang Vita, like my paternal grandfather was also a master storyteller.

Riddles are an essential part of the Filipino culture. Mamang Vita, in spite of her admonitions about casting them at night encouraged us to do them during the day. But we continued doing them at night… The thrill of stumbling upon a very difficult riddle and almost expecting an answer to come from someone out of the window or under the bamboo floor made the experience of breaking an old taboo exciting.

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #10

Chance is always powerful.
Let your hook be always cast;
In the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.
- Ovid, Roman poet (43 BC - 17 AD)

This is one of my favorite pictures in my stock. This was taken sometime in May, 2005.

While strolling along the outskirts of Ilaya in Lapulapu City, I passed by a man squatting in the side of the road dike, fishing in the cleared-out mangrove swamp of the now abandoned Coral Reef Hotel. He was having a blast as his hook does not stay long in the water. Fish kept on biting for their doom. I chatted with him for a while and when he warmed up to me I asked if I could take a picture of one of his catch.

The fish was very much alive when the picture was taken. It flipped out of the man's palm several times and he kept on picking it up. This explains the grains of sand in his fingers.

Grazie!

To all those who offered their prayers and sympathies in the time of our family's loss, I am gratefully thankful!

To all those who have left messages and comments of inspiration, hope and concern, thank you very much!

The world recedes; it disappears;
Heav'n opens on my eyes; my ears
With sounds seraphic ring:
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy Victory?
O Death! where is thy Sting?

(excerpt from The Dying Christian to His Soul by Alexander Pope)

A New Dawn

I thought that my previous entry about my reflection on Christ's resurrection will be my last entry before I take my hiatus for the Holy Week...

But here I am now, hopeful as ever and faithfully clinging to that promise of Easter.

The song in my previous post has taken a new meaning in my life this week.

My grandmother (my mother's mother) took her final bow to this earthly life at around 7:20AM today. My mother was there, nursing her until her very last moment.

While all of us in the family mourn, I hold to that firm hope in my heart that she has experienced a new dawn - with the light of a million mornings.

Farewell Lola Pilar!

The Hope of Easter

"If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." The Resurrection above all constitutes the confirmation of all Christ's works and teachings. All truths, even those most inaccessible to human reason, find their justification if Christ by his Resurrection has given the definitive proof of his divine authority, which he had promised. - The Catechism of the Catholic Church, para 651.

The fulfillment of all the Biblical promises was consummated by Christ's resurrection. The very basis of the validity of our faith in the Messiah hung in the balance one Sunday morning 2000 years ago... But the stone was moved and the tomb was empty!

May we have the hope that Easter is meant to bring us - a new life! An aspect of the Paschal Mystery is revealed to us. By adoptive filiation, we share in the real life of God's Son. Christ's resurrection is giving us the hope that one day a new life will be given to our bodies and that we will share in His resurrection.

This Easter, let us renew our hope and refresh our souls in the promise that it brings.

May the light of a million mornings dawn in us all!

For the Coffee Table Book - Issue #9

Work is love made visible...

You work that you may keep peace with the earth and the soul of the earth.

And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret...

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself and to one another, and to God.

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

-Excerpts from The Prophet, Khalil Gibran

A vegetable farmer in Mantalongon, Dalaguete is shown going down the heights of Osmeña Peak.

Pencils...

Of all the writing instruments, none is more profound than the pencil.

If one is not satisfied with the form, slant or curve of the characters laid down on paper, one could always begin anew. Erasing those graphite marks is not a problem.

With the recent advances in pencil technology, we see different lead classifications: HB, 1H until 8H, 1, 2, 3, etc... Then, we have the mechanical pencils. I just wonder why the erasers of these mechanical types suck... So I stick with the old faithful eraser bar. And these mechanical pencils always require a batch of refills. Who knows when those fine leads will run out, or even break?

So it is with life... We write the scripts of our lives. In aspects where we want to have a different scenario, we could always erase the script, and begin anew. Just like the pencil types, we approach life in many different ways as we go through the different stages, as we face different situations.

The old eraser is just like the faith we cling into, graces that heaven outpours, and Love unlimited. We may have different formulas but faith always assures us, graces always fill us and Love always cleans us and allows a new sheet for us to again write on.

We must always have the zest and perseverance with our struggles. As such, we need extra helpings of hope from people around us for us to always have that reload of zest and encouragement. No matter how rough the course (even if sometimes we succumb and break) as long as we have hope, like the mechanical pencils, we would always have reloads and refills.

We are all called to erase those unwanted scenes and terms in our script. We may have used ink in our writings in the past. No worries! All we need are clean sheets of paper. Begin anew. And this time make sure to use pencils...

(originally scribbled on 22 Dec 2006)

Miss N, I will send something for you soon... :)